René Graetz

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Honor for Käthe Kollwitz 1974;
far right: René Graetz
Grave of René Graetz in the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof in Berlin

René Graetz (born August 2, 1908 in Berlin , † September 17, 1974 in Graal-Müritz ) was a German sculptor , graphic artist and painter .

Life

Graetz grew up in Geneva . From 1923 he received training as a gravure printer . From 1926 to 1928 Graetz attended lectures in Geneva and Zurich. From 1929 he worked as a fitter in a large printing plant in Cape Town ( South Africa ). In 1932 he attended the sculpture class of the newly founded art academy, later taught life drawing there and worked as a sculptor from 1935. In 1938 he left South Africa, lived in Switzerland and France and then from March 1939 in Great Britain, where he settled in London . Here he met Henry Moore , whom he visited several times in his studio. Like all German citizens in the United Kingdom, Graetz was interned in 1939 and deported to Canada in 1940. Graetz also painted in the camp, got to know German artists such as Theo Balden and worked in the illegal KPD group. In 1941 he was able to return to London and worked there for the Free German Cultural Association . After the war he went to Germany, became a member of the KPD in 1946 and later the SED . He lived in East Berlin and initially worked as a designer for the Volk und Wissen publishing house, and later became a freelance artist.

Many watercolors , drawings and sculptures come from him . His most famous works include the relief steles in Buchenwald and the sculpture Liberation in the Sachsenhausen memorial . In 1970 he turned away from the concrete representation of the human being and switched to abstract art. The turning point was the creation of the works Upright Figures and Inborn Power .

Graetz was married to the artist Elizabeth Shaw from 1944 until his death .

Works (selection)

Further sources:

Awards

literature

  • Gottfried Hamacher. With the assistance of André Lohmar: Against Hitler - Germans in the Resistance, in the armed forces of the anti-Hitler coalition and the "Free Germany" movement: short biographies . Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Berlin. Volume 53. ISBN 3-320-02941-X ( PDF )
  • Short biography for:  Graetz, René . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

Commons : René Graetz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Friedrich Schulz: Ahrenshoop artist lexicon . Verlag Atelier im Bauernhaus, Fischerhude 2001, ISBN 978-3-88132-292-8 , pp. 62–63
  2. ^ Rosa Luxemburg. In: artgraetz.com
  3. ^ Website with sculptures by Graetz
  4. ↑ Sculpture in Berlin ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bildhauerei-in-berlin.de
personal data
SURNAME Graetz, René
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd August 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 17th September 1974
Place of death Graal-Müritz